U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,956 describes an integrated process for the production of propene oxide, where propene is made from propane by dehydrogenation in a propene production unit and is reacted with hydrogen peroxide in an epoxidation zone to make propene oxide. Part of the propene produced may be diverted to other uses.
WO 2004/020423 describes an integrated method for synthesizing propene oxide which comprises dehydrogenating propane, separating hydrogen to obtain a stream T(2) containing propane and propene, separating stream T(2) into a stream T(5) having a high propane content and a stream T(3) having a high propene content and reacting stream T(3) with a stream containing hydrogen peroxide to obtain propene oxide. The document further discloses that a partial stream T(7) comprising propane and propene can be obtained in the step of reacting stream T(3) with hydrogen peroxide and that part or all of this stream may be returned to the step of separating stream T(2) if stream T(7) has a ratio of propane to propene of less than 1.
Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, online edition 2013, entry “propene”, DOI 10.1002/14356007.a22_211.pub3 describes the use of a double column process with a high pressure C3 splitter and a low pressure C3 splitter for separating propene and propane in FIG. 3. In this process, the reboiler of the low pressure C3 splitter is heated with overhead vapor from the high pressure C3 splitter and the overhead products from both columns are combined to provide a polymer grade propene.